UNC lockdown updates: Horror as armed person waves gun at Chapel Hill bagel shop weeks after campus shooting
All-clear issued about an hour after initial alert caused by man waving gun near bagel shop
The University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus was put on lockdown for the second time in two weeks after an armed person waved a gun inside a bagel shop.
An alert was sent out at 12.54pm ET on Wednesday, asking students and staff to “go inside now” and to “avoid windows” because of the threat “on or near campus”. An all-clear alert was put out at 2.10pm.
An official told The Daily Tar Heel that the incident came when the suspect allegedly brandished a gun at Alpine Bagel over an employment-related conflict.
No shots were fired and police said that suspect Mickel Deonte Harris, 27, was arrested at around 2.45pm just north of the campus.
This marks the second terrifying incident at the school in just over two weeks. On 28 August, the campus was on lockdown for hours amid reports of an “armed and dangerous person”.
That person was identified as Tailei Qi, a 34-year-old graduate student who allegedly shot and killed Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences.
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UNC at Chapel Hill on partial lockdown till midnight
The University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus was put on a complete lockdown today until 5pm following reports of an “armed and dangerous person”.
From 5pm to midnight, the university said it would operate at a condition 2 status with classes cancelled and all non-mandatory operations suspended.
Lockdown came 24 hours after UNC students protested state gun laws
The latest lockdown came just 24 hours after UNC students protested state gun laws at the State House in nearby Raleigh, chanting “Vote Them Out” towards the politicians present.
Just last month, Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences, was gunned down on the Chapel Hill campus.
UNC Chapel Hill campus left eerily empty during lockdown
The University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus was put on lockdown for the second time in two weeks after reports of an “armed and dangerous person.”
Video shows an empty campus and how some students dropped everything — including bags — and ran.
An alert was sent out at 12.54pm ET, asking students and staff to “go inside now” and to “avoid windows” because of the threat “on or near campus”.
UNC Chapel Hill campus left eerily empty as ‘armed’ person triggers lockdown
Suspect has a ‘lengthy criminal history’ – reports
Mickel Deonte Harris, 27, was arrested on Wednesday on outstanding warrants related to a road rage incident on 5 September.
Authorities confirmed that Mr Harris was connected with the lockdown and gun scare at the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus.
He was arrested from the Greenfield Complex, located about 10 to 12 minutes away from the campus, ABC11 reported.
Mr Harris reportedly has a “lengthy criminal history” which dates back to at least 2013, the report said.
Police gave ‘all clear’ on UNC campus after one hour lockdown
UNC campus police lifted the lockdown after more than an hour following reports of an “armed and dangerous person.”
A campus alert was sent out at 12.54pm ET, asking students and staff to “go inside now” and to “avoid windows” because of the threat posed “on or near campus.”
At 2.10pm the university put out an updated alert that stated: “All clear. All clear. Resume normal activities.”
UNC students hid under tables at on-campus bagel shop: ‘Oh my God that’s a gun’
Allie Agnoli, a student at the Chapel Hill campus, said she had to barricade herself and her roommate at a booth inside an on-campus bagel shop.
“We got under the table and got as close as we could. My roommate kinda froze and said ‘what do we do’ and I was like ‘just get down’,” the student told WRAL News.
“In the moment I had a split second of thinking to myself ‘oh my God that’s a gun’ and the next thought was – again, it is happening again,” she said.
Ms Agnoli feared that someone would be shot in front of her and turn around to shoot her next.
A worker at the shop reportedly pleaded with the gunman to put the weapon away, prompting him to eventually leave the establishment.
“We just grabbed our backpacks and ran through the back of Alpine and we were running across the street just to get away,” Ms Agnoli said.
“As we ran, I called 911 and gave a description. That was my first time calling 911.”
She added that it was at least 10 minutes since she made the 911 call that the campus authorities put out an alert.
Voices | The shooting in Chapel Hill took away the magic of a place I love
When I first set foot in Chapel Hill, I remember feeling at home at once. Despite being a Yankee who grew up on the West Coast, and even as sweat forced me to repeatedly change shirts amid the August humidity, the University of North Carolina was love at first sight for me.
The words of novelist and alumnus Thomas Wolfe that Chapel Hill “was as close to magic as I’ve ever been” rang as true to me as the gongs from the Bell Tower on campus tell the changing of time, writes Eric Garcia.
The shooting in Chapel Hill took away the magic of a place I call home
‘Didn’t want to experience the trauma again’, says sophomore UNC student
Students, who returned to the Chapel Hill campus after the 28 August shooting, “just wanted a fresh start” but were forced to undergo the same “trauma” after the campus was put on a lockdown due to reports of an “armed and dangerous person”.
“I didn’t want to experience the trauma again,” sophomore student Brooke Riggs told the Washington Post.
The lockdown was imposed yesterday after a gunman was confronted by an employee of Alpine Bagel, located on campus.
The suspect was later arrested and no shots were fired, the police said.
That “doesn’t take away from the gravity and trauma and the deep emotional pain that comes from situations like this,” the student said. “The UNC campus has a collective wound, and this event has exacerbated it.”
Police name suspect taken into custody
Police say that Mickel Deonte Harris, 27, of Durham, North Carolina, was taken into custody north of the UNC campus at around 2.45pm, according to WRAL.
ICYMI | News University of North Carolina students rally for gun safety
A shooting that left a faculty member dead and frightened students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August has galvanized gun safety advocates and local Democrats, who rallied the grieving campus community Wednesday to fight for stricter state gun laws.
About 600 students held protest signs on a large lawn in the heart of campus and bowed their heads during a moment of silence as the iconic campus Bell Tower rang in honor of the deceased associate professor, Zijie Yan.
More here.
